{"id":23629,"date":"2025-03-27T10:24:44","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T10:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/?p=23629"},"modified":"2025-03-27T10:24:49","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T10:24:49","slug":"dutch-official-compares-vaping-to-heroin-and-crack-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/dutch-official-compares-vaping-to-heroin-and-crack-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Dutch official compares vaping to heroin and crack use"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A junior minister in the Netherlands has compared vaping to heroin and crack cocaine use in a presentation to other politicians.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

State Secretary Vincent Karremans told the Dutch House of Representatives that he wants to prevent people from starting to vape and encourage anyone already vaping to stop. In his publicly-available statement<\/a>, he claimed nicotine is the most addictive drug after heroin and crack cocaine, and that it can cause serious health issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karremans, State Secretary for Youth, Prevention and Sport, said: \u201cBecause nicotine is the most addictive drug after heroin and crack, vapes are highly addictive. Nicotine damages the developing brain and can lead to a persistent addiction at a young age. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cThat in itself is very serious, but it also makes you more susceptible to other addictions. That is why I am doing what I can to tackle this problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Misguided\u2019 comments<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Vaping advocacy body the World Vapers\u2019 Alliance (WVA) has condemned the comparison as \u201cmisguided,\u201d saying it puts lives at risk by scaring people away from a product that is proven to be far safer than smoking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said Karremans\u2019 comments are \u201cnot only inaccurate but also harmful to public health efforts\u201d and added his \u201cclaim that \u2018nicotine is the most addictive drug in existence after heroin and crack\u2019 is a blatant misrepresentation of scientific evidence and contributes to the growing pandemic of misinformation surrounding vaping in the Netherlands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blunder comes after European commissioner Wopke Hoekstra made the false claim last month that \u201cvaping kills\u201d<\/a> in a public address to parliament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at the Subcommittee on Tax Matters<\/a> on February 6, Hoekstra inaccurately stated that vaping kills in the same way as smoking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Landl, Director of the WVA, said: \u201cThe Dutch government’s fear-mongering tactics are not only wrong but dangerous. By spreading such misinformation, they are actively undermining efforts to combat smoking in the Netherlands. The scientific evidence is clear: vaping is significantly less harmful than smoking and has helped millions quit cigarettes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Statements go against evidence<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The statements that \u201cnicotine harms the developing brain\u201d and \u201cmakes you more susceptible to other addictions\u201d go against strong evidence to the contrary from respected organisations such as Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ASH addressed vaping myths last year<\/a>, stating that young people who vape are far less likely to be nicotine-dependent than smokers. And a review by leading health experts published last month concluded there is no evidence vaping leads to smoking among youth.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ASH also stated that no data is available on the direct effects of nicotine exposure in human adolescents, undermining any definitive claims about its impact on developing brains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September, a poll<\/a> found that a sweeping ban on online vape sales and flavours in the Netherlands had backfired. The survey by Dutch vaping consumer association ACVODA found that since the ban came into force in January 2024, most vapers (80 per cent) had simply switched to buying vapes from other countries or online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Netherlands falling behind on smoking rates<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The WVA said that while Sweden has been declared \u2018smoke-free\u2019 and New Zealand is on the verge of being next, \u201cthanks to their progressive approaches to vaping and nicotine pouches\u201d, the Netherlands is falling behind with a smoking rate<\/a> of almost 20 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Landl said: \u201cIt’s deeply concerning to see the Dutch government ignore the success stories of countries like Sweden and New Zealand. Instead of embracing proven harm reduction strategies, they choose to peddle myths that will only serve to keep people smoking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WVA says it has called on the Dutch government to retract its misleading statements and revise its approach based on factual, scientific evidence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFailing to do so will only perpetuate the smoking epidemic and deny smokers access to potentially life-saving alternatives,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A junior minister in the Netherlands has compared vaping to heroin and crack cocaine use in a presentation to other politicians.\u00a0 State Secretary Vincent Karremans told the Dutch House of Representatives that he wants to prevent people from starting to vape and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990002,"featured_media":23630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[340,342,186,333],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-23629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-netherlands","tag-new-zealand","tag-nicotine","tag-sweden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/990002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23636,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23629\/revisions\/23636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23629"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=23629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}